Time away

It had been over a year and a half since Mandy and I had a weekend alone together without the kids.  We love the little buggers, but it sure is nice to have an entire conversation, or even speak an entire sentence without being interrupted.  So we arranged a babysitter, booked flights to Colorado and went.

We landed at DIA at 7:30, hopped into the rental car and met our friends who lived about 30 minutes away.  We shared some fun conversation amidst a few beers and slices of pizza, and managed to keep their four-year old up way too late.  We left and headed to Boulder, checked into our hotel and fell asleep fast, two hours past our normal bedtime.

Short hike around Boulder

The next morning, we went to a great Creole cafe (Lucille's) for breakfast, followed by a short hike on Flagstaff Mountain, just west of the UC campus, in order to help get acclimated.  We wandered Pearl Street after our hike, and had lunch at Pasta Jay's.  We had no particular agenda, and it was nice to just relax without having to rush back to kids.  After our late lunch, we drove to Estes Park.

We arrived at our little cabin - a mother-in-law's quarters, really - around four.  We unpacked, went into town to get some food for our hike the next day, and capped off the night at the Rock Inn, a local hangout that has been one of our favorites since our snowshoeing trip out here.

The next morning, we left early to do a hike up to Black Lake, a nice little lake nestled high in Glacier Gorge.  The drive into the park was pretty, with low-lying fog highlighting the alpenglow of the mountains in the background.  It was cold at the start, around 35-40 degrees, but it was a beautiful day with little wind and bright sunshine when we weren't in the shade of the trees.

Looking off into Moraine Park

 We cruised past the ever-popular Alberta Falls, on up to Mills Lake.   The lake looked much different than the last time we were here, in February 2011, when it was frozen solid.  It was also blowing about 40-60 miles per hour, and at one point we were hurled across the ice.  We stopped and took a quick snack break, but it was too cold to stay put for long, so we continued on.

Looking off into Glacier Gorge

Mills Lake - that large rock in the lake on the right was what we tried to take shelter behind when we were up here in the winter. 

Another strong wind event in November 2011, with gusts up to 90 miles per hour, blew down a mile or so of trees from Mills Lake to  Black Lake and making the trail impassable for some time. The scale of this was hard to imagine, almost as though a tornado had touched down and heaved these massive trees everywhere. In some places, it was almost like walking through a canyon, with rock walls on one side, and massive tree roots on the other.

We passed Ribbon Falls just before we finally arrived at our destination.  We were starving, so we found a rock at the edge of the lake and devoured our Subway sandwiches.  After lunch, we agreed to go on to Blue Lake even though we were pretty tired by then.  There is a steep uphill along the falls for about three-quarters of a mile when we finally called it a day and turned around.  We were in the right spot, and I was certain the map showed the lake to be "just over that hill", but I saw no trail and we were too tired by then to do any bushwhacking, so we turned around and headed down.

Ribbon Falls

Above Black Lake

It always seems to take longer to go down than go up, especially if you're covering the same ground.  We were both dog-tired, and stopped to rest at Mills Lake again.  After a few minutes, we heard blood-curdling screams towards the end of the lake.  Thinking someone was seriously hurt, we practically ran in that direction.  We eventually caught up to a couple with two kids in backpacks on their backs, including a two-year old who had fallen in the water, and who was pissed when her mom made her ride in the backpack rather than walk in her wet shoes.

We finally made it back to the car, made it back to the cabin and quickly showered.  We "face-timed" with the boys, who both seemed to be having a great time with the babysitter, headed out to do laundry and then, gratefully made to Ed's Cantina for mexican food and margaritas.

The next morning, we almost decided to go to Starbucks instead of hiking.  We were both tired, a little sore and I thought we had gotten up too late to do the hike we had discussed the night before.  Mandy convinced me we had time, so we packed our backpacks and set off for Twin Sisters.

Twin Sisters from our cabin

Not having been there when he did it, Mandy really wanted to see what Noah climbed the last time we were here.  Twin Sisters is actually a couple of peaks, both over 11,400 feet, that overlook the city of Estes Park, and several other peaks in the area, with awesome views of Longs Peak.  It's a 7.2-mile round trip, mostly forested, but with the last .7 miles above tree line over rugged ground.  We were tired from the day before, but actually feeling better - a little more acclimated, and feeling a little stronger overall.

It was another beautiful day, with cool temps and almost no wind.  Toward the top, Mandy was moving a little slower than Noah was on our last trip, but we eventually made it to the top.  The views are excellent from here, and we ended up spending nearly an hour on top, taking pictures, eating a snack and enjoying the views.  We hoofed it down in about an hour and a half, and finished the entire 7.2-mile hike in about 5.5 hours, only an hour shorter than it took Noah and I to do it in July.  Mandy was impressed that he was able to do it at all.

Singing at the top

After the hike, we hit Ed's Cantina again for a bite to eat, then grabbed a shower at the local laundromat before heading to Denver to see our friend Paul, who married us both at Chasm Lake eight years ago.  That remains, to my knowledge, the only wedding ceremony the good Reverend has performed.  We enjoyed great grilled pork chops over a few beers as we got to know his wife and kids.  Afterwards, we  headed to the airport, dropped off the rental car and hung out until our flight back to KC.

Best post-hike snack

It was late when we got home, so we checked on the sleeping kids. They handled the weekend just fine without us, according to the babysitter, and we enjoyed the time away alone.

Colorado summer of 2012 highlights

I can't believe we haven't found the time to post about our annual summer trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.  It's just been busy this summer.  This is the first time since Noah was 10 months old that we've gone without my mom, sister or a babysitter to help with kids and give us the chance to go out on a solo hike/dinner date.  Adding a Spring Break vacation, cut our budget down considerably and at first Paul was going to cut it out completely.  Eventually we settled on a smaller scale vacation.  We rented a smaller cabin outside of the popular tourist town of Estes Park.  It was only 8 miles north of Estes Park and about a 20 minute beautiful drive.  Although it only had 2 bedrooms and one bathroom, it was actually quite roomy.  We enjoyed being situated in a canyon and in solitude, where we had access to private trails only for homeowners and their guests.  The cabin was in the Roosevelt National Forest.

The roadtrip there went well.  We stopped in Goodland, KS for the night and enjoyed our stop over.  They had a nice pool, with water slides and diving boards, and it cost us all of $6 for the entire family.  It was great after six hours in the car, and after our swim, we ate dinner at a local place recommended to us by someone at the pool,  and by someone Paul works with.

The next day, it was a pretty easy trip into Estes Park.  We stopped for Pizza on the Riverwalk and let the kids climb on some rocks and put their feet in the water.  We checked into the YMCA of the Rockies (for 2 nights only in their lodge), before we headed to Glen Haven for the rest of the week.

They were so busy that our room wasn't ready until 6pm, so we killed time playing at the playground and having the kids make tie-dyed shirts at the art center. We also went out to eat at the Rock Inn Mountain Tavern, just down the street.  The YCMA is very popular and after staying above the grounds 2 years in a row at the big house we've rented with family, we decided to check it out.  Not really our thing.  They offer tons of activities for kids (but mostly aimed for older kids) and also offer day camps for kids.    They have lots of crowds, and it's like camp, but a really nice camp.  After 2 nights in the small room, we were so happy to check out and head to our mountain cabin.  

Here are a few highlights of our trip.  We'll follow up with individual posts about hikes we did, with pictures.  

Monday - hiked around Lily Lake and up Lily Mountain as a family.  Both kids surprised us at their progress.  Noah has always been strong, but in the past couldn't focus on a destination.  This time, he kept going and going and we had to keep up with HIM!  Elliot amazingly kept up really well.  He didn't go as far as Noah, but climbed pretty high up some pretty steep areas and on boulders.  It was fun for all four of us.  After our hike, we grabbed lunch and ate a picnic at the park, while Paul had a conference call in his car.  Once he finished, we rented a pontoon boat on Lake Estes for an hour.  Very beautiful, relaxing and a surprisingly cheap activity.  

Tuesday - Paul and Noah went on a BIG hike.  Noah's first peak - Twin Sisters at 11,482 feet and 3.4 miles to the top.  Noah was ready and excited and did fantastic.  Paul has amazing pictures of this hike we'll share.  We are both so proud of him.  While they did that hike, Elliot and I went to the park and then hiked around the Lumpy Ridge Trail.

That evening, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, we got a text from Noah's close friend (whom he and Elliot had played baseball with and shared a helmet with right before leaving town) that their kids had lice.  Noah's head had been itching, so got up and ran to the nearest barber shop.  After buzzing their hair and a quick trip to the YMCA nurse to confirm the diagnosis (it was a mild case, and we couldn't see any, but Noah was itching)- we headed to get the shampoo for us all.  After checking into our new cabin and eating the dinner Noah picked after his big summit (mac and cheese, cheese pizza and ice cream), we all shampoo'd and went to bed.  Fun times.

Wednesday - due to our unwelcome "guests" that we had just learned accompanied us, and Noah and Paul's big hike the day before, the boys and I took it easy, playing around the cabin, hot tubbing and watching the wildlife feed on the dried corn we put out, while Paul headed to the laundry mat with all our clothes (clean and dirty) and all the bedding in the house.  Oh and pillow pets and stuffed animals.  And towels.  Fun times for him.  But, he got it done quickly and got the car vacuumed out as well.  With no intentions of a real hike, we headed into the park to the Alluvial Fan.  We had a bottle of water and a camera - only expecting the boys to climb on some rocks.  Well Paul and Noah quickly made it to the top.  Elliot and I went up over halfway, before heading back down.  And it was some serious climbing.  It was created after a flood in 1982 and lots of boulders and a waterfall formed.  The kids really loved it.

Thursday - We headed to the Lumpy Ridge Trailhead and started up to Gem Lake.  It's only a 2 mile hike, but steeper than we expected.  After .5 miles Noah and I continued to Gem Lake, while Paul and Elliot went along the Black Canyon Trail.  Gem Lake was small, but beautiful and serene with GREAT rock climbing.  Noah had a ball.  Then we ran into some friends from Kansas City.  The boy and Noah hadn't played in a few years, but were the perfect match.  They became fast friends climbing rocks to the top together.  We hiked with their family back down, met Paul and Elliot at the trailhead and then headed to Fun City.  That night we grilled out at the cabin.

Friday -  This was our "off" day.  We played around the cabin.  I went into the tiny town of Glen Haven and got some jewelry at a little shop and a cinnamon roll for us to split the next morning at the General Store.  That evening after dinner we decided to take a walk in our neighborhood.  We found a trail by the river and the kids really enjoyed it.  We collected rocks to make our own rock cairn at home.  

Saturday - Our last day we let the boys pick what they wanted to do. They both wanted to head back to the Alluvial Fan.  This time I went with Noah and Paul went with E.  After climbing the boys spent a lot of time making a fort out of logs fallen from trees.  Afterwards we drove to Loveland to meet some friends from Denver for lunch.  They have a 4 year old daughter and both the boys enjoyed her company.  It was a beautiful drive through the canyon from our cabin to Loveland.  The kids stayed up late that night making a fort out of sticks in the backyard.  

Sunday - we hit the road as soon as the kids woke up.  Naturally, they chose to sleep in that day.  It was a long day, but we made record time.  First they wanted chicken mini's for breakfast on the way out.  Perfect.  There was a Chick-fil-a in Loveland.  DOH!  Forgot it was Sunday and they weren't open.

Then we PUSHED through to Burlington, Colorado (near the Kansas state line) even though they really wanted a break before, to go to the awesome old school park we found last year.  You can imagine all our disappointment when we found the park was GONE!  Completely gone!  Instead we got gas, went potty and I let the kids pick a treat at the gas station.  The chocolate Hostess cupcakes were their only solace until we got to Hays, Kansas.  We looked up a park and headed there.  Fail.  It was 100 degrees and this "park" was just land, trees and a "lake" the boys discovered.  A dirty/stinky/littered with filth sewage drainoff is what it actually was.  We headed to Sonic and let them play at their outdoor playground for 15 minutes, eat and we drove home.  All the way home with only that one crappy, hot stop.  It's always more fun driving TO vacation than FROM vacation.

Overall, we had a great time.  Enjoyed our cabin, enjoyed hiking with the kids and as always, loved the weather and mountains.  Pictures and hike reports to come SOON!  Meanwhile, here's a few for now.

On a walk through our "neighborhood" 

First day, giddy to be needing fleece after a short afternoon storm

Lake Estes 

Mommy's hiking buddy - Lumpy Ridge

first Elk spotting at the YMCA

Brothers bonding on Lily Mountain

Twin Sisters summit

Alluvial Fan

Hot tubbing at our cabin while watching the wildlife in our backyard

Gem Lake trail

Gem Lake

Playing in Snow

The day after hiking Mt. Sniktau, we hiked Mt. Royal (in Frisco).  Instead of the clear, blue day we had the day before, it was snowing in the mountains.  The trail was steep and icy in places, and even though it was cold and snowing, we were sweating from the effort.  I somehow managed to lose my camera the day before, so I only snapped a few cellphone pictures of the rest of the trip.

After about 4 hours of that, we had lunch at a great authentic Mexican restaurant in Frisco and headed back to the hotel for a little nap.  We spent the afternoon in Breckenridge wandering around, trying to decide what to do the next day.

We wanted to go snowshoeing, but we'd been getting mixed signals on whether there was enough snow in places to make it worthwhile.  We could have used them at the top of the trail at Mt. Royal, but they weren't needed at the bottom.  We decided to rent them anyway, and the next morning we agreed on hiking Argentine Pass, which starts high and ends at 13,205'.   To get to the trailhead requires traveling about 4 miles on a 4WD road.  It was covered in snow, but there were tracks of vehicles that had gone before us, so we decided to follow.  About halfway there, the snow started getting deeper, and the tracks disappeared.  We continued on, but a few hundred yards later we were stopped in deep snow trying to crest a hill.

It was a narrow road, with no way to turn around, so I backed the Suburban down the hill.  I promptly got stuck, nearly going over the edge into Peru Creek, which ran right beside the trail.  After we dug ourselves out of that mess and got back on the trail, I continued backing down, trying to stay in the tracks we had created coming up.  Instead, I got sucked into a small ditch on the other side of the trail, which abutted a rocky hillside.  It took us quite a bit longer to dig out of that one, and cost us the driver's side mirror in the process.  A few yards beyond that, we found a turnaround spot, and just parked there.

We were now about an hour past our scheduled start time, and still two miles from the trailhead.  With a flight out at 4:00, we were on a very specific timeline.  We donned the snowshoes and started moving.  Instead of doing Argentine Pass, we decided to explore the area around the Pennsylvania Mine, an old ore mine developed around 1879.  There were no other tracks besides ours, so we had to break our own trail in the snow.  The areas of deep drifts were hard work going uphill, and even downhill, but we eventually made it to the mine and back.

We got back to Frisco, packed up, washed the Suburban to make sure we hadn't scratched up the side, and headed to the airport.  A few hours later, I sat in my bed reading lots of bedtime stories to the boys, who were both very happy to see me.  It was a great feeling to see a huge grin on Noah's face as I surprised him coming up the stairs, and Elliot told me he wanted to give me "the biggest hug ever."  It was a fun weekend, but I was also happy to be back with Mandy and the boys.  Mandy, as always, was a trooper - taking care of the boys by herself for four long days.

Top of Mt. Royal

Sunday morning outside our hotel

Oops.  Digging out with a snowshoe.

Heading uphill in deep snow.

Pennsylvania Mine.  This building still has an ore-crushing machine on the top floor.  It looks pretty dangerous at this point.

 

What's for dinner?

I was walking back from dinner in Breckenridge, along the main street, and this big guy was standing at the doorway to the left of this picture, like he'd just let himself out.  He proceeded to walk right towards me, backing me up a few feet, before he stopped and stared at me, as if he were daring me to stop him.  I didn't.  I may have even done the palms-out, universal, "Hey, I don't want no trouble" sign.  He then walked back to the garbage can and had a little look.  

Judging from the size, this guy hasn't missed many meals.

Getting out of the office

In the midst of a busy few weeks, I had a business trip to Denver scheduled.  It was on a Thursday, so I decided to extend it and take the weekend off to play in the mountains.   Thursday was a typical travel day.  Early flight, but waking up much earlier because of a fear of oversleeping.  Long day of travel, meetings, typical heavy dinner with all the meeting participants, and off to bed in a different time zone.  

Another colleague stayed over as well, and we decided to try some hiking or snowshoeing while we were out here.   I'd been looking forward to the weekend, but a lingering cold and sinus issue left me feeling pretty drained, and unsure of my ability to do anything.  We had initially decided on Rocky Mountain National Park, but 85-100 mph winds had been wreaking havoc all week, and the snow wasn't yet plentiful enough for any meaningful snowshoeing.  

Instead, we decided on Mt. Sniktau, a 13,234-foot mountain off Loveland Pass that provides spectacular views of both sides of the continental divide mountain ranges.  The first, and last time I'd been here was with Mandy a few years ago.  At that time, closer to summer, it was still cold and snowy up high, but I remember it being a great acclimation hike with a lot of visual reward for the effort.   

We exited off I-70, headed up Hwy 6, picking up some skiers along the way, and made our way to the start at 10,990 feet.  As expected, it is colder, snowier and windier in the late fall months than it is in summer.  When we started out, the wind was pretty mild, but it picked up about 20 minutes after we started.  It was a tailwind, of sorts, and didn't hinder us going up.  Once on top of the main ridge, however, we were getting gusts that kept us off balance.   About an hour and forty-five minutes after we started, we stood on top.  

I made two hugely stupid mistakes on top.  I was shifting some gear around, and briefly stuck my sunglasses in my pocket without securing them.  A wind gust made me stumble, and my sunglasses went skittering across the snow, and down a steep drop.  I briefly debated going after them, but the steepness of the slope made me reconsider.  No sunglasses, lots of wind, sun and snow can mean snow blindness, or at least painful retinas if you're not careful.  A few minutes later, I took off my over-mittens, and right as I did, a gust ripped one out of my hands.  I ran after it and made a final full-body leap to grab it, but it blew away, and down the mountain, over a 700-foot steep slope.  This was a little more serious given the wind-chill, but I still had insulated gloves on, so I stuck my left hand in my pocket on the way down to keep it warm.

It was a very windy second half, but we made it down in good time.  Afterwards we ate at the Dillon Dam Brewery, and unable to muster any more energy for awhile, we booked a room at a nearby hotel.  

Later that evening, we headed to Breckenridge for dinner.  We'll try something different tomorrow, and hopefully we'll have continued good sunny weather. 

Torrey's Peak in the distance

Windswept ridge

Great views from the top

The blowing snow at times created brief whiteouts.

Hallet's Peak hike with my sister

Paul so generously and last minute-ly sent me away to Colorado for a weekend getaway last weekend.  The last trip just wasn't enough to get it all in.  He's getting ready to have his surgery, and he thought it would be a good chance for me to get in some fun first.  My little sister, Sam was happy to accompany me, as she didn't get a vacation this summer and was jonesin' for the mountains anyway.  We drove to Goodland, KS on Thursday night until we had to lay our sleepy heads.  We got up in the morning and finished our drive getting into Estes Park around noon.  We ate a quick fast food bite and checked into our small studio.  After that we headed out to RMNP for some acclimation.  We hiked up to Lake Haiyaha and just took it slow getting used to the altitude.  On the way down we decided to turn off onto Dream Lake and hike up to Emerald Lake, too.  That night we dined at Ed's Cantina, got a Subway sandwich for our hike and hit the sack.  The next morning we got up and headed to Bear Lake Trailhead to summit Hallet's Peak.  Sam has never summited a big peak.  She usually does the lakes.  So she was excited.  I was too!  I did Flattop Mountain last year, but didn't go the extra 0.6 miles to Hallet's Peak.

Since we weren't really acclimated yet, we certainly weren't speedy.  We took our time.  At the Dream Lake overlook (pretty early on) I was already feeling weak and ate some GORP.  I had only had a banana and protein bar for breakfast, which at the time seemed plenty.  The GORP I had was a pre-packaged portion and was pretty small.  In retrospect, it wasn't enough.  Once you pass treeline, you feel like you are close.  You are not close.  As we got higher and higher, we got slower and slower.  I could see we were close but started feeling so weak.  I realized I needed to eat but we were too close to the top.  I wanted to eat my sandwich at the top of Flattop and my snickers bar on the top of Hallet's Peak.  I finally broke down and ate half my snickers and that did help get me to the top.  We both felt weak and agreed we weren't sure about Hallet's.  Turns out all we needed was some fuel.  Once we ate our sandwich on Flattop and enjoyed the views and a small break, we both realized we were up for Hallet's Peak.  Next time I'll pack an extra snack for the way up or eat more carbs for breakfast.  I suppose being acclimated would help too ;)  Felt good on that steep hike from Flattop to Hallet's though.  It was challenging and fun trying to find the best route/boulders/trail up to the top scrambling the boulders.  Once we were at the top of Hallet's I finished my camelback of water leaving me none for the hike down.  Sam shared hers when I needed it.  She didn't drink enough obviously to have any to share.  I now know for next year I need one whole camelback, plus a big gatorade for the hike down.

The hike down is slow going (although faster than going up).  It is so steep you have to work against gravity to prevent falling.  Plus it's very rocky.  We both felt great the whole way down and at the end though, even though we'd hiked 10 miles and were tired.  Sam did get some altitude sickness feelings that night.  I am positive she didn't drink enough and think that is largely part of it.  Plus we were up high and were only there a day.  She drank lots of water and still felt kind of dizzy most of the drive home the next day.  Either way, we both thought it was an amazing hike and LOVED it!

I love hiking because it's so empowering to overcome challenges, both physical and mental.  It feels physically challenging, but it's more mental really.  I know I can do anything I set my mind to.  Anything.  But, I have to believe I can do it and remind myself of that when it gets hard.  The journey and hike is fun, yes.  But reaching the summit is the best.  Summiting Hallet's Peak gave me that same high I got finishing my half marathon.  And it was a hell of a lot more beautiful.  In such beautiful mountains you feel closer to God admiring his creation.  I said a special prayer for Paul's upcoming surgery thanking God for the healing he IS going to provide to him.  This, I know.

Trail Stats:
Hallet's Peak
Summit Height: 12,713'
Elevation Gain: 3,228'
Difficulty Level:  Strenuous

Sam & me at the Bear Lake Trailhead

View of Long's Peak from the Flattop trail

Emerald Lake overlook from Flattop Trail

Beautiful views along this steep and rocky trail

Marmot

Snowfield on final stretch to the summit of Flattop Mountain

View behind Flattop

Sitting on rock on Flattop just above Tyndall Glacier - Hallet's Peak in background

Sam in the same spot. This is where we ate our sandwich before summitting Hallet's Peak

Flattop Mountain (if you click you can see tiny people and get some perspective)

Never Summer Mountains (view from Flattop)

We laugh in the face of danger!  (Well, not really, we didn't touch the glacier)

It was a steep, rocky climb to Hallet's Peak from Flattop, but only 0.6 miles

We can do it, one step at a time

From Hallet's Peak:  Looking at Tyndall Glacier, Flattop Mountain & curve of the earth on the horizon

Beautiful views 360 degrees around Flattop

Another view from Flattop

Beautiful views every way we turned

12,713 feet baby!

Cool views

Post 10 mile hike pic, back at Bear Lake Trailhead